U NIT P LAN O VERVIEW

Unit Topic: American Short Stories of the 1960s and 70s

Concept(s): Characterization, Context, Strategy
Designed By: Sarah Sheffield
Subject Area(s): English Grade Level(s): 9
Brief Summary of Unit (Including information about the class/students, what the unit is about, why
the unit is important within the context of the curriculum and for adolescent students, and how the
content relates to students lives)
The class is a mixed ability group. There are 19 students in the class. The class environment is overall a
positive environment. Students often will politely participate in discussions, but they will be hesitant
to build on each others answers. They also are hesitant to answer particularly touchy questions.
Many of the students try to stay quiet the entire class and not draw attention to themselves. The
students want to succeed but often are shy about letting others know that they are motivated. They
also have expressed concern to me individually that they dont understand why reading is important.
There are few students in particular with highly diverse needs.
Cody has Aspergers Syndrome has struggles with social cues and fitting in with his classmates. Todd
is very quiet and does not engage in classroom activities, so its hard to measure his success. There
are two ELLs. Dominic recently emigrated, and he is highly motivated to be successful and is capable
of taking advanced classes. Ana has limited experience with the English language outside of school,
and she is getting to be proficient in the language, though still struggles with writing. Steven has
chronic auto-immune diseases and is often absent. When he is in class, he is unmotivated and often
very tired. Jane has anxiety, and she often gets too nervous during class discussions to participate
and panics before quizzes and tests. Two of the students in the class are exceptionally high
achieving. Julia is very creative and prefers tasks that require outside of the box thinking. Jensen
often tries to lay low so that others do not notice his achievements or remark on his family, none of
whom have attended college.

The unit focuses on American Short Stories from the 1960s and 1970s that touch on the issue of
equality. The three stories to be taught in class are The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss, Harrison
Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, and So What are You, Anyway? by Lawrence Hill. Students will be
using the stories to help them learn before, during, and after reading strategies such as KWLs,
double entry journals, and SWBS. The students will also focus on character development in the
stories and think about characters as members of the social context within the stories.
This unit is important to help students develop strategies for approaching any reading sample
including textbook texts, articles, instructional guides, and more. The unit will also exercise students
abilities to reflect on social inequality in American History, and it will help students put thought into
the relationship between literature and the historical context in which its being written. Another
large purpose of the unit will be for students to find and use evidence from stories and other articles
to help them form their opinions. Students will also be able to use this evidence when explaining
their opinions. This unit will be taught as a way to use strategies to help them read any materials,
including materials for other classes and also job applications or other important documents. This
unit will also give students skills to be successful as we start reading more difficult texts and begin
writing literary analysis.

S TA G E 1: I D E N T I F Y D E S I R E D R E S U LT S

Established Goals (VSOLs and/or CCSSs)

EDIS 5020 Fall 2015
J. Pease
9.4 Students will be able to read, comprehend, and analyze a variety of literary texts including
narratives, narrative nonfiction, poetry, and drama.
g) Analyze the cultural or social function of a literary text
i) Explain the influence of historical context on the form, style, and point of view of a written work.
k) Analyze how an authors specific word choices and syntax achieve special effects and support the
authors purpose
l) Make predictions, inferences, draw conclusions, and connect prior knowledge to support reading
comprehension
m) use reading strategies to monitor comprehension throughout the reading process

Unit Learning Goals (UKDs) & Essential Questions

Meaning
Students will explore these ESSENTIAL
Students will Understand THAT
QUESTIONS
Literature can serve a social function within the How do strategies help students become
historical context that it is written. (U1) stronger independent readers?
Strategic readers use context clues within stories Is the historical context of the 1960s in America
to guide their predictions of the story, their reflected in the stories? Why or Why not?
questions about the story, and their conclusions
What is the characters role in the context of the
about the story. (U2)
story?
Writers strategically develop characters through
the context of the story using specific direct and
indirect language. (U3)

Acquisition
Students will Know
The definition of settingthe world in which a
character lives, including that characters family,
friends, experiences, social world, and the
political atmosphere that surrounds the
character. (K1)
Authors develop characters through direct and
indirect characterizations. (K2)
Direct characterizations are explicit
descriptions about the characters affects,
appearances, mannerisms, and other
features. (K2.1)
Students will be skilled at (Do)
Make predictions about the text based on
context clues and explain why they made the
prediction. (D1) applying
Explain the historical contexts in which the
stories were writtenCivil Rights, Space Race,
and rise of television. (D2) understanding
Apply specific reading strategies to stories that
they read (D3) applying
Ask meaningful questions that are based on prior
knowledge before and during reading of a text.
(D4) understanding
EDIS 5020 Fall 2015
J. Pease
 Indirect characterizations develop the Develop an image of a character using evidence
character through the characters dialogue, from the text. (D5) creating
actions, and thoughts. (K2.2)
Justify why they agree or disagree with a general
How to use before, during, and after reading statement made about a short story. (D6)
strategies, specifically KWLs, Double-Entry evaluating
Journals, Likert Scales, and Somebody Wanted
Explain the purpose for using the reading
But So. (K3)
strategies KWL, SWBS, Double-Entry Journals,
KWLs are a before reading strategy that and Likert Scales. (D7) understanding
stands for What I Know, What I want to
Compare and contrast the ideas, characters, and
Know, and What I learned; and the strategy
settings in each of the stories in the unitThe
helps students activate prior knowledge,
Sneetches, Harrison Bergeron, So What Are
make predictions, and reflect on reading.
you Anyway?, Thank You, Maam. (D8)
(K3.1)
analyzing
Double-entry journals are two sided journal
Give examples from the story when making an
pages that include both excerpts from the
argument about the storys characters, setting,
texts and students notes on that excerpt.
purpose, and social function. (D9) applying
(K3.2)
Identify examples of direct and indirect
Likert Scales are scales that offer
characterization. (D10) understanding
generalized statements about the piece of
literature and the students have to rate how
much they agree or disagree with the
statement. (K3.3)
Somebody Wanted But So is a strategy for
creating a phrase that helps understand
important characters in the story and their
motives. Ex. Johnny wanted food but his
mom hid the cookies so he climbed the
counter to retrieve the hidden cookies.
(K3.4)
The purpose of using reading strategiesto
develop independent reading skills that will help
them to monitor their reading progress, become
active readers, and improve their
comprehension. (K4)
The broader historical context of the 1960s with
a focus on aftermath of WWIIthe Holocaust
effects and the Cold War, race relation in Civil
Rights Movements, Brown v. Board of Education,
the rise of televisioninvented in 1940s, and the
Space Racesparked by JFK and Glenn orbited
the early in 1962. (K5)
How to explain and defend their opinion about
the purpose for reading short stories by
collecting evidence from the texts and facts
about historical context. (K6)

EDIS 5020 Fall 2015

J. Pease
 S TA G E 2: D E T E R M I N E A C C E P TA B L E E V I D E N C E

Performance Assessment / Summative Assessment Plan

Performance Assessment:
This assessment will be given to students after we have learned and practiced before, during, and after
strategies. The assessment will be the end of the unit, and it will help students apply knowledge and skills
to a text on their own. Students will work on the text in class. Students will be given the entire
performance task at one time, but I will break it down into part 1, part 2, and part 3. I will give students
deadlines for each part, and at those times, I will check to see student progress and students will have
the opportunity to request feedback. Students will work on one part at a time. Completing the
assessment will likely take about 1 week or 3-4 class periods.

Youve been hired by a family friend to tutor a student in reading. The student has been assigned the
story Thank You Maam by Langston Hughes, and he is struggling to understand the story. To help your
new student understand the content and purpose of the story, you decide to create a Reading Guide that
will help the student do before reading strategies, during reading strategies, and after reading strategies.

To prepare for your lesson, you will create a Character Diagram to help you teach the student about the
characters and to help the student visualize the story. You will also write a So What Explanation to help
teach the student the purpose of reading and using reading strategies.

To teach the lesson, use the template to create a three-part Reading Diagram for the story, Thank You
Maam. You will use strategies that you learned in your 9th grade English class to structure the Reading
Diagram. Since you are a diligent and organized tutor, you create a copy of the Reading Guide and fill it
out on your own before going to the tutoring session so that you know what your talking points are and
you know what you think is important. You can design your own reading guide or use the template you
used in class. Be sure that whatever you choose, the reading guide clearly includes all necessary parts.

Use the criteria on the back of the page to guide your process. (criteria in
UP_sheffield_studentchecklist)

The students will be given an example of the Reading Guide at the beginning of the unit because we will
fill it out as a class for the story So What Are You, Anyway? There will also be additional examples of
Reading Guides on the class website. The students will be given a template with descriptions of how to
create each section along with a blank template when this assignment is handed out. We will review the
template and the project instructions in class alongside the checklist
In addition to the prompt, students will receive specific expectations for each part of the assignment. The
students will complete the assignment one part at a time and mostly in class. Students will write the So
What Explanation first. Then, they will do Part 1 and Part 2 as they read. Part 1 will be before reading
strategies. Students will have to provide a definition of the strategy used as a pre-reading strategy. Part II
is during-reading strategies, and students will fill out the double-entry journal as they read. Part III is after-
reading strategies, and students will create their after-reading statements after reading in class.
U1, U2, U3, K1, K2, K3, K4, K5, K6, D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, D7, D9, D10
Other Summative Assessment (optional):

Formative Assessment Plan

What methods will you use to gauge students progress towards the learning goals and provide
feedback and support leading up the summative assessments? These should include both formal and
informal methods of assessment.
EDIS 5020 Fall 2015
J. Pease
 Alignment with
Formative Assessment Description
Alignment with KUDs Summative
(including implementation & feedback plan)
Assessment(s)
Students will submit their KWL chart with at least
1 example in each column that they did
independently while we read The Sneetches. I
will keep track of what we did as a class so that I
know when I see an original note. We will work This practice will help
on the chart as a class at first so that I can model students practice and
how to do the KWL activity and then students understand the KWL
will have a few minutes of quiet reflection to strategy so that they
think about it on their own. I will return the KWLs U2, K1, K3.1, D1, D4 can implement the
the next day in class with comments on how they strategy in their
did. Students will be assessed on their ability to performance
fill out the KWL worksheet rather than the assessment and in
content that they choose to add. They should future reading.
write their Knows and Want to Learns using
context clues and predictions made about the
text. Their Learns should be based on evidence
from the text
This practice will
During reading of Harrison Bergeron, Students prepare students for
will write their double-entry journals in their part 2 of the
individual readers journal that stay in the performance
classroom. They will leave the journals in the U2, U3, K1, K3.2, K5, D1, assessment in which
room and I will check their work and add D4, D6, D8 students will be
feedback and comments so that they can see the creating a similar
feedback the next day before beginning a new strategy worksheet on
strategy. their own for a
different story.
This practice will help
After completing So What Are You, Anyway? students prepare for
Students will submit their responses to the after- part 3 of their
reading Likert scales with their rating and their U2, K3.3, K3.4, K5 performance
reasoning for agreeing or disagreeing with the assessment, in which
statement. students will create
their own Likert scales.
Students will have the option of submitting each Part 1: Each of these parts will
part of their performance assessment Reading U2, K3.1, K4, D1, D3, D7, offer students
Guide to me for feedback, but they are only D9 opportunities to revise
required to submit one part. They will work on Part 2: parts of their Reading
the project in class and at the end of the day, I U2, K3.2, K2, K4, D1, D3, guide before
will suggest that they submit it to me for D4, D6, D7, D8 submitting a final
feedback. I will look for evidence of completion Part 3: product.
or near-completion of the task. I will look for U2, U3, K2, K3, K3.3,
similar criteria that I looked for in prior formative K3.4,K3, K5, D2, D3, D5,
assessments. Whenever students do submit the D6, D7, D9, D10
forms to me, I will read them and provide So What Explanation:
EDIS 5020 Fall 2015
J. Pease
feedback to be returned the next class period so
that students can make edits as necessary. If U1, U3, K1, K5, D2, D6
students submit through Google Docs, I will add Character Map:
comments to the documents and they will have U3, K1, K2, D5, D9, D10
their feedback right away.

Practicing using the

double-entry journal
will help them prepare
for Part II of the
performance
Class 3 Exit Ticket. Students write down some of assessment. In
their reflections from their double-entry journal addition, the
so that I know that they are on the right track to explanation of using
U2, K3, K3.2, D1, D3, D9
understanding the journal. Students also explain support evidence will
why it is important to use supporting evidence in help them explain why
arguments. using reading
strategies is a good
plan in the So What
Explanation of the
performance
assessment.
This supports the
performance
Class 2 Exit Ticket. Students reflect on their group assessment because it
work, and they write 2-5 sentences explaining will be a good starting
(U1, K6, D6, D9)
their conclusion about the purpose of reading point for writing their
fiction literature. So What Explanation
as part of their final
assignment.

Stage 3: Learning Plan

Day Summary of Class CONTENT and ACTIVITIES KUDs Addressed

1 Topic: Making Predictions and using a pre-reading strategy (U1, U2, K3.1, K4, K5, D1, D3,
Minilesson: predictions and questions related to evidence D4, D9)
Teacher introduces The Sneetches and contextualizes it in
history, based on author, and based on content.
Present KWL Strategy: emphasize using predictions about the
story to guide what to write about in KWL
Work as a class to create one Know and one Want to Learn
Students work to create at least two more Knows and Want to
learns
Read The Sneetches out loud as a class
Stop at pre-selected stopping points to discuss predictions for
what might happen next
After reading, Think-Pair Share student reactions to the text
Teacher models column 2, What I learned strategy
Students work to add more information to column three of
EDIS 5020 Fall 2015
J. Pease
 KWL: emphasize that learnings should be drawn from the text
Students turn in their KWL to teacher for formative
assessment

2 See Lesson Plan 2 (U1, K5, K6, D6, D9)

3 See Lesson Plan 1 (U2, K3, K3.2, D1, D3, D9)

4 Topic: Analyze Harrison Bergeron in Harrison (U2, U3, K2, K2.1, K2.2, K3,
Bergeron K3.4, D3, D5, D8, D9, D10)
Minilesson: direct and indirect characterizations
Small group work to find examples of direct and
indirect characterizations in Harrison Bergeron
Introduce Character Maps: show example and Think
aloud about how teacher got that example
Students work in small groups to create a character
map: includes words, phrases, and pictures that
represent direct and indirect characterizations from the
story
Students underline examples of indirect
characterization and circle examples of direct
characterization
Students turn-in character map to teacher to receive
feedback and comments.
Teacher explains and demonstrates SWBS strategy.
Students work individually to create at least three
SWBS sentences: at least one that is for Harrison
Bergeron and at least one for The Sneetches.
Students, in a whole class discussion, compare and
contrast The Sneetches with Harrison Bergeron to
discuss how different characters approach equality
differently.
EDIS 5020 Fall 2015
J. Pease
 Students turn in their double-entry journals at the end
of class for formative assessment

Topic: Read So What are you Anyway with focus on

After-Reading strategy Likert Scales
Review of The Sneetches and Harrison Bergeron
Review of historical context, specifically the civil rights
movement and the timeline of the civil rights movement.
Review of Making Predictions, Connections, asking
questions, and explaining reactions
Hand-out another double-entry journal sheet for
students to continue note-taking as they read
Read So what are you anyway? as a class (U1, U2, K3, K3.3, K5, K6, D3,
5
After reading: discuss what elements of the story could D6, D8, D9)
be reflections of society; discuss authors purpose for
writing the story; discuss what this storys view of
equality is and how it may or may not be different from
the other two stories
After discussion, give students Likert Scales to complete:
students rate their level of agreement, then they write a
1-2 sentence statement, explaining their reason
Students turn in Likert Scales at the end of class for
formative assessment
Introduce Performance Assessment: give students entire
assessments and explain how it will be broken into parts.
Explain the So What Explanation: show example: think-
aloud about how to get started
Use class time for students to work on So What
6 (U1, U2, K3, K4, K6, D2)
Explanation for reading literature and using reading
strategies
As students work, teacher holds writing conferences
(using this as differentiation) to help students with
where theyre going

EDIS 5020 Fall 2015

J. Pease
 Students read Thank you Maam in class
Teacher explains that students will complete Part 1 of
performance assessment: explain how to complete the
definition and purpose
Students take time to complete Part 1: KWL
Students then move at their own pace to start working
(U2, K3, K3.1, K3.2, K4, K5,
7 on Part 2 Double-Entry Reading Journal: about 30
D1, D3, D4, D7, D9)
minutes into class, teacher gives students a warning
that they should be moving on to Part II
Read Thank you Maam as they complete part 2
As students work, teacher checks in and has reading
conferences with students to gauge understanding

Teacher reviews the performance assessment and lets

students know where they should be in the process
Teacher explains that they will be working on character
maps for one of the characters from Thank You Maam
and they will also be completing Part III
Students work to create their character map and identify (U1, U2, U3, K2, K2.1, K2.2,
8 direct and indirect characterizations K3, K3.3, K3.4, K4, K5, K6,
Students create SWBS statements for the characters in D3, D5, D6, D7, D9)
the story
Teacher urges students to move to creating their own
Likert Scales and answers with 40 minutes left in class
Students work on scales and Teacher circles room,
helping when asked and where it seems necessary

Students have a class period to finish their performance

9 assessments and be prepared to turn them in at the end of
the week.

EDIS 5020 Fall 2015

J. Pease